That was the way it should have been until heavy rain and icy-cold weather in the areas of the Vosges and the Doubs yesterday brought about one of the strangest stages for decades. The result was that O'Grady reclaimed the yellow jersey in Pontarlier and restarts this morning with a massive lead of over half-an-hour on the race favourites.

The eighth stage of 138 miles started in wintery conditions and the field of 176 did not resist an early attack after just three miles. In all, 14 riders came together and they raced at an average speed of almost 28mph to finish 15 miles in front of the pack.

The stage was won by Dutchman Erik Dekker, and his margin of 35min 54sec over the field was the biggest in post-War history. O'Grady lost some time on the run-in to finish fifth, but he leads in the yellow jersey (time) and the green jersey (points) competitions.

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The Adelaide rider now looks at a challenge from Frenchman Francois Simon, whose three older brothers, all retired, have won a stage in the Tour de France. Simon is second overall, but 4min 32sec behind while Bram De Groot from Holland is third and over 21 minutes back.

American Lance Armstrong, the winner for the past two years is 24th, 35min 19sec behind, while his expected main rival for victory, Jan Ullrich, is 27th. Both will continue to watch one another and hope O'Grady falters when the Alps are reached tomorrow.

Perhaps the rider to profit most from the break was Kazakhstan's Andrei Kivilev. One of the leaders yesterday, he has reclaimed his lost time and is now fourth overall and poses a serious danger because he climbs almost as well as Armstrong and Ullrich.

On Saturday, Frenchman Laurent Jalabert scored his second stage win of the Tour in Colmar after a late lone break from five leaders. The Frenchman, who has only recently recovered from a household accident which threatened to end his career, gave France a victory on Bastille Day, repeating the success he also enjoyed at Mende in 1995.

New leader was German Jens Voigt, who finished second after the day's plan to switch the race lead from team-mate O'Grady had worked perfectly. He led Jalabert by 2min 34sec and O'Grady was down to third, but yesterday's stage changed all that.

The stage through the Vosges mountains was marred at the finish line when a spectator drove into the crash barriers in an attempt to reach Jalabert. The French driver, who was immediately arrested and sent to a psychological institution, was stopped when a spectator threw an object through his windscreen. Eight people were injured, the most seriously being a women who had two broken legs and concussion.

Spaniard Txema Del Olmo was the first rider to leave the race under a cloud on Saturday when he was informed that he had given a positive drugs test after the prologue time trial in Dunkirk. The product was reported in the Spanish Press as the banned blood booster EPO, but the Tour organisation were awaiting the result of the second urine test which the rider had requested before announcing the product.

Del Olmo's Euskaltel-Euskadi team were quick to distance themselves from the rider knowing that they risk having the complete team disqualified under the Tour's new code of ethics regulations. For the moment the team who received a wild card continue, and their prompt action may allow them to stay on the Tour.